Hero of Justice
by SpiralTail
Summary: It doesn't take super strength to be a hero. Mumen Rider is the C-class underdog of the Hero Association. But he never backs down.
1. The Unlicensed Hero

**The Unlicensed Hero**

Mumen Rider stood in the hallway, as he took a call from the Hero Association. "I'm sorry but I can't do the cat search mission. I have an important meeting."

"Mumen Rider you have only a few hours left to complete your weekly quota. If you don't, you'll be demoted."

"I'll see if I can find the cat later. But my meeting can't wait. Good bye."

"Wait, Mumen-"

The hero ended the call. He walked back into the medical ward. It was full of beds, and a single patient age ten years. "I had to take a call," Mumen Rider said. "I'm back now."

Ishiya looked pale. But his cheeks flushed with color when the hero walked into the medical ward. "I can't believe Mumen Rider visits me," he said, in a voice that burst with joy.

Mumen Rider smiled. "Of course! We're friends, Ishiya-san. I heard you were feeling better today."

Mumen Rider heard of Ishiya when his mother approached the hero on the street. She explained her son was ill. At a young age, he had osteoporosis. He was in constant pain. The only joy he got was hearing about the heroes of the Association. Ishiya loved to bike before he got ill, and he idolized Mumen Rider most of all. "It'd mean the world if you could visit him."

So Mumen Rider had visited, and continued to do so each week.

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better," the young boy piped up.

"That's what I like to hear." They chatted for a few minutes, until Ishiya brought up the hero's debut. "I heard right after you became a hero you beat a Mysterious Being that was Demon threat level."

"Actually that was before I became a hero. The news got it wrong."

"So you beat that rock monster even before you became a hero!"

"Kind of," Mumen Rider said. "It was more of a fluke."

"I don't see how. Can you tell me about it?"

Mumen Rider grinned. "It's a pretty dumb story. Are you sure?"

Ishiya looked hopeful as a puppy. "Yeah!"

...

Kaito trained like hell. He biked. He jogged. He did sit ups, pull ups, and pushups. He did jump rope, and could jump 300 times in a row. He also studied intensively for the Hero Association exam. He was at peak condition when he went in to the venue. He poured all his heart and power into passing the exam.

He walked out with a 50. 40 of the score came from the written test. 10 came from the physical test.

...

"Wait," Ishiya interrupted. "You failed the hero exam? (Although it's pretty cool you can do 300 jumps in a row.)"

"Yeah, but I became a hero anyway. Keep listening."

...

Kaito was an optimistic guy, but even he couldn't help but feel a little glum at the score. He biked home absentmindedly. Biking cleared his head. He realized that he could learn from this. He'd train twice as hard. He'd make sure to get full marks on the written exam next time. That meant he needed to get 20 on the physical exam. He wouldn't let this get him down.

As he biked across the bridge, he saw that the traffic had stopped. Then the sirens blared. "Warning. Warning. A Mysterious Being has appeared in the upper district. Evacuate immediately. Evacuate immediately."

That's when he heard the thunderous sounds just a few blocks away. People screamed and ran from it. Drivers leapt out of their cars, and fled for their lives. But somehow Kaito found himself heading towards the sounds. He wove in between vehicles and fleeing citizens. All common sense told him to stay away. He'd just failed to become a hero.

No, that was wrong. Even if the Hero Association didn't accept him, he could still be an unlicensed hero. Mumen Rider. He pedaled harder than ever, and when he turned the corner he saw a scene of despair.

[DEMON DISASTER LEVEL: LAVA GOLEM]

The Mysterious Being was a giant made of rock. In between the chunks of rock lava glowed orange. It was ten feet tall, and its heavy bulk crushed everything beneath it. Cement, cars, and heroes. Already there were a few heroes who'd been defeated. More hung back, nervous to face the threat. A couple ran away.

Kaito snagged one of the retreating heroes. "Why are you running away?" he asked.

"We're only C-class. We need an S-class hero to beat this monster!" The C-class hero tugged from his grasp, and continued to run away.

Part of Kaito was angry. How could a hero run from danger? The other part wanted to run right alongside them. But he found himself cycling towards the monster. The closer he got, the more he realized he was completely out of his league.

"I am Lava Golem! I was spawned from the depths of an exploding volcano! I will burn and boil all in my path!" It stomped a few times to demonstrate it.

Kaito zipped towards him. As he neared the Mysterious Being, he unclipped his helmet—even though it was a safety hazard—and flung it with all his might at the monster.

"Take this! Helmet of Justice!"

By complete luck, the lightweight helmet struck Lava Golem right in its molten eye. The monster howled with pain and blundered, crushing one car underfoot like it was a tin can. Kaito came to a halt, and put the kickstand of his bike down. By then, Lava Golem had blinked the trivial pain away.

"Who are you human?" it roared.

"I'm Mumen Rider!" Kaito said challengingly. "I just failed the Hero exam with a score of 50, but I'm here to fight you!"

"What kind of dumb introduction is that?"

"An honest one," Kaito declared. "Prepare yourself monster. Tackle of Justice!" He launched himself at the towering monster.

Lava Golem lifted its foot, and casually stomped Kaito into the ground. Pain burst through the biker's body. The monster continued to stomp him. As Kaito's vision grew dark, he sensed a few heroes running past him towards the monster. One of them was the C-class hero who had fled just seconds before.

"We can't run when this weakling fights!" he shouted.

Kaito lulled into blessed unconsciousness that was free of tormenting, bone bending pain. He hadn't been beaten this bad, even when he fought bullies at school. He didn't know how long he was out. But when he opened his eyes, he heard the monster laughing.

"Pathetic! Weak! You so called heroes are nothing but ants."

How did a monster that lived in a volcano know about ants? No, that didn't matter. He needed to fight it. But Kaito couldn't move. He couldn't do anything. He gritted his teeth in frustration, as the monster walked towards him.

But Lava Golem didn't notice Kaito's body on the ground. Its foot caught against Kaito's side.

Lava Golem tripped on Kaito.

It stumbled.

It fell over the edge of the bridge.

It hit the water with a splash, and in an explosion of steam it died.

...

"You killed Lava Golem by tripping it?" Ishiya wriggled with laughter.

"Its weakness was water," Mumen Rider said. "So you see, it's a dumb story. I didn't really beat it. It was an accident."

"But you became a hero."

"I got some undeserved publicity for my stunt," Mumen Rider said. "The Hero Association didn't want to be upstaged by an unlicensed hero. So they asked me to join."

"That's so cool!"

"Really? I thought you'd think it was dumb."

"No, I mean it's cool you're an ordinary guy. But you do so many heroic things. I see you fighting dangerous bad guys all the time."

"Yeah I do," Mumen Rider said. "It's to help people like you, Ishiya-san."

"So your real name is Kaito?"

"That's right."

"Is it okay if I call you big bro Kaito?" Ishiya asked nervously.

"Of course you can," the cyclist said. He unclipped his helmet. "Here I'd like you to have this." He fastened the helmet around Ishiya's head.

It was loose on him, and it looked odd with his hospital gown. But Ishiya looked as if a crown had been placed on his head. "You're really giving this to me, big bro?"

"I have others. I even have a spare one with me. That helmet you're wearing is special though. It's the one I wore when I fought the Deep Sea King."

"That was awesome! You and all the other heroes were so cool. I'm sorry that baldy took all the credit."

"Actually I'm going to tell you a secret," Mumen Rider said, and leaned close. "The hero Saitama is the real deal. He's a great guy. He saved my life."

"Oh." Ishiya looked nonplussed. "Okay. I guess if I see him I won't call him a baldy."

"That's a good idea," Mumen Rider said with a chuckle.

They talked for another hour, and Mumen Rider got to know a bit more about his friend. They exchanged a fist bump before he left. On his way home, the cyclist for justice came across the missing cat. He returned it to its owner, and completed his weekly quota.


	2. Zero Chance

Zero Chance

The day began normally.

Kaito wheeled through the city on his day off. He wore his civilian clothes which felt oddly loose on his skin. He'd been exceeding his weekly quotas, so he wore his customized cyclist uniform most of the time. The panda shirt (his mother's favorite one on him) and biker shorts felt strangely light. He had a more casual choice of bike, and a cart on the back. It held a bouquet and a box of chocolate. It was a few days late for Mother's Day, but his mother had said that was just fine. He was relieved to hear it. Sometimes she could have a bit of a temper.

He stopped at an intersection as he waited for the walk light. It was on the weekend and hundreds of people passed the brown haired man without a second glance. Without his trademark hero outfit he looked like a completely ordinary guy. He found the anonymity a bit of a relief. Ever since he became rank one, many people recognized him on the streets, and made a big deal of it.

When the light switched he wheeled smoothly across the lane. But before he reached the curb there was a blast like a cannon. He looked in time to see a manhole cover fly into the air. It smashed into a driver's window, and the car skidded and hit the car in front of it. Suddenly, horns were blaring and people were screaming. More manholes began to pop up like corks from a champagne bottle. And then the monsters poured out.

They were like giant humanoid frogs. They had leering mouths, yellow eyes, and unnaturally long limbs. It was like some twisted version of World of Warcraft. The Murloc invasion had arrived. It would've been laughable except the frogs had already begun to attack.

[WOLF DISASTER LEVEL: AMPHIBINATORS]

They had long thick tongues that could snap out and wrap around people like a whip. They could also spew out mucus-like spit that hardened and trapped their victims. Worst of all, the frogs were dragging the trapped people back down into the sewers. Kaito wasn't sure what would happen to the humans, but he knew it couldn't be good.

And there were so many of the mysterious beings. In the first minute since the attack thirty of them were already on the surface. Kaito was pretty sure he could take one monster on, but not all of them. And from the way people were either running or hiding, no other heroes had arrived yet. Kaito felt woefully outmatched as he stood there in his panda shirt and biker shorts. To attack would be suicide. He should wait for backup. Or he had every right to wheel away on his day off, and visit his mother.

But the thought of her reminded Kaito of the first time he'd seen a mysterious being in person. He'd been with his mother then. It happened so long ago he thought he'd forgotten it.

 _Over ten years ago_

Kaito hadn't completely believed mysterious beings were real when he first heard of them. Mysterious beings had attacked City Q. But he never expected to see them himself, or be running for his life. In the stampede of humans his mother held his hand tightly. She could easily outrun him, but she never left him behind. She kept on snapping at him to run faster, so he did until his heart slammed against his chest and his lungs burned. Her firm hand was the only thing that made him brave enough to move forward.

Behind them a scene from a nightmare had played out before their eyes. They saw the swarm of rats a block away. The giant creatures had caught up with a bunch of people, and instead of stopping they just seemed to flow over the people like a brown river. But what they left behind were piles of bones, the flesh devoured off of the victims in an instant. It was a wave of death.

[TIGER DISASTER LEVEL: RAT PLAGUE]

It was just chance that they had chosen the right roads to run down. More people were being picked off all the time, and bones were strewn openly in the streets. The rats stayed in a pack, stampeding down one street at a time. Most people ran in a straight line towards the nearby police station. They heard there was a barricade there. But his mother said that many people would be sure to draw the swarm. Instead they ran into a convenience store just as some of the mysterious beings rushed past, laying waste to everything in the streets.

"Hurry and get down!" someone snapped. When Kaito's eyes adjusted to the dim space he saw many people hiding behind the shelves, trying to keep quiet to not draw any attention. Kaito's mother crawled with him behind a counter, and held him close. As he shivered she rocked him back and forth. He was almost a teenager, so why was he crying like a baby? It was shameful.

Most of the rats had passed, but the street outside was in devastation. Cars were crushed, storefronts were wrecked, and rubble was everywhere. Kaito saw a human skeleton, and prayed it was not someone he knew. For a while things were quiet, but then they heard a nearby sound outside. It was a man in the streets. A cement slab was on his legs, and had him trapped there. But he wasn't dead.

"Should we go help him?" someone said after a while.

"If you go out there you're dead."

"Can't he stop screaming? He'll bring them down on us."

"He really has no consideration at all. Some people just can't think of others."

"Shut up!"

Kaito whispered to his mother, "Kamen Rider will rescue him."

"There are no such thing as heroes in the world," his mother hissed. "Time you learned that Kaito. Now don't talk."

Kaito didn't talk.

Twenty people all huddled in the convenience store, trying to stay silent and invisible. The man trapped under the cement block had stopped screaming for help. Kaito wasn't sure whether he was asleep or dead. The boy trembled uncontrollably in fright, and his mother held him close. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. They expected any second for more rats to come, and maybe these ones wouldn't just stay in the streets. They might come in and reduce all the people to bones. Every moment was a nightmare.

His mother was squeezing him so tightly he could hardly breathe. He was about to say so when her grip vanished and she turned to a nearby man. "Keep my son safe," she hissed. She stood up amidst the huddled survivors and ran towards the door.

"You're crazy lady!"

"If you go out there you'll die!"

"Shut up or we'll die too."

Kaito ran after her, but the shopper grabbed him. "Your mother wants you to stay here," he said. He wouldn't let go. Kaito started to call for her, but people around him told him to shut up and keep quiet. So he sniffled and sobbed as his mother made her way over to the trapped man. They watched as she tried to move the cement slab off him. It was too heavy for her, but she didn't stop trying. It went on for several minutes, and Kaito was sure more rats would come. All around him people were muttering how they were both going to die.

But an employee stood up. "I...I'm going to go help her," he said.

A man in a business suit stood up. "Me too."

A woman went with them as well. The three of them joined Kaito's mother, and together they managed to move the cement block. They carried the man back inside. It was just in time. A couple minutes later, another swarm of rats seethed down the streets. But by then the man was inside. Kaito's mother hugged him, and never let go. She was trembling. There were no doctors or nurses, but one lady said she was a CN. She treated the man with makeshift bandages and a basic first aid kit. Later she crawled over to them.

"Let me see your hands," she whispered.

His mother held out her hands, and that's when he saw what it had cost her. She'd tried everything to move the cement slab without regard to her body. There were gashes on her hands and arms. The skin on her palms was completely shredded off, and the open wounds oozed blood. Some of her nails had been snapped clean off. The CN barely knew where to start, but Kaito's mother joked and said these scrapes were nothing compared to her biker gang days. She never let out a sob even as the tears rolled down her cheeks, while the CN tried to patch her up. Kaito wrapped his arms around his mother's waist. To him she had the most beautiful hands he'd ever seen.

And he knew his mother was wrong. There were heroes in the world.

...

All the fear was burned out of Kaito in an instant. He charged forward with a roar. The battlefield was covered in slime that made his bike slip as he wheeled forward. He meant to ram a frog but his aim was off and instead he ran over the tongue it had wrapped around a woman's legs. When the tread tires ran over the tongue, his bike jolted as if he'd hit a speed bump at full tilt. The frog made a horrible gurgling sound. When he turned around he saw to his surprise that the frog's tongue had been snapped off by the bike. Even though it was free of the main body bleeding stump, the severed tongue writhed around. Gross.

Kaito skidded around the battlefield and at one point he was knocked off his bike. The bike went skidding along with his mother's gifts, which were trampled underfoot. He began to take attacks from every side. He was sure he was going to be trampled underfoot too, but a hero arrived to help him. Then more came. It devolved into a furious melee as more heroes and more monsters rushed to the field. But many of the heroes showed surprising solidarity, and teamwork paid off. Soon they were dealing with the last Amphibinators, and moving to rescue the survivors.

Then Tornado of Terror showed up and telekinetically sliced up the mysterious beings, like she was dissecting frogs in science class. It was over in seconds. "Hmph! Useless!" the telekinetic said as she floated off. The heroes weren't sure whether she meant them, or the monsters.

Mumen Rider was badly injured. He sat down heavily, faintly noticing the blood that soaked his clothes. He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them next he was lying on a warm bed. He heard the familiar sound of a beeping monitor, and looked around at the hospital room. He seemed to wake up in a hospital room at least once a month. In the corner a television showed a reporter who was interviewing some of the heroes who'd managed to stay conscious after the battle. Apparently there were many C-class heroes who'd risen up to the occasion.

The next bed over a hero named Brave Dude said, "It took them awhile to recognize you amongst the wounded. Otherwise you'd get more hero rep, Mumen Rider-san."

"How are the citizens?" Kaito asked.

"Rescued. Watchdog Man came to the city. He tracked them underground and did a real number on the Amphibinators. By the end they were running from _him._ Not one got away."

Mumen Rider wasn't sure how he felt about such brutality. But he didn't have much room to talk, having mutilated a monster by gruesomely severing its tongue. He sighed and lay back into his pillow. They'd given him a good narcotic, and he was quite pleased with that.

"What were you thinking, attacking them on your day off?" Brave Dude asked. "And with no backup?"

"I was thinking of my mother," Kaito said.

Brave Dude laughed. "Good one." The hero on Kaito's other side chuckled too. It seemed the Hero Association had set aside this room for them.

Only an hour after that exchange his mother came to visit him. She had a bouquet of roses and a pained expression. She came over to him and said, "I see now why you missed our visit."

Kaito smiled. "Sorry mom. And I was supposed to bring you the bouquet. But we won."

His mother hung her head, as if holding back tears. But when she raised her face, she didn't look tearful at all. She looked monstrous. "Like hell you won!" she roared, and hurled the bouquet at him. Then she proceeded to pummel him. "If you won why are you busted up!?"

One of Kaito's arms was in a splint, so he tried to block her blows with his good arm. "I was the first one there. I'm sorry I missed our visit. Mom, I'm heavily wounded!" It seemed she'd lost her temper again.

"You're heavily wounded after a fight even if you're the last one to arrive!" his mother raged. She'd completely gone into berserker mode, and it wasn't the first time. "You're as weak as your father and you need to learn your place. Receive this! Punch of Motherly Love!"

Her fist tore straight through his pillow, where his head had been moments before. "That's not motherly love!" Kaito yelped, as he fell off the edge of the bed. He looked over at Brave Dude and the other heroes for help. Their beds were empty. They'd already fled.

His mother was moving around the bed to stomp on him as he lay on the linoleum floor. "It is if I get you before the monsters do!" she bellowed. "Die you brat!" He wouldn't have been surprised to see steam whistling from her ears. He wished he were fighting the Amphibinators again.

That's when a nurse rushed in. "Ma'am this is a place of healing. Restrain yourself!"

"I am restraining myself," his mother said, but she stopped. She unclenched her fists, and he saw the old, faded scars on them. Some of the damage had healed, but not all of it.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave at once ma'am."

As his mother was escorted out she seemed to have calmed down. Kaito peeked around the bed warily. She said sweetly, "Come and visit me when you're discharged, Kaito-chan. I do look forward to your visits."

"Y-yes mom," Kaito stammered. He held his breath till the door shut.


End file.
